Through the Dark
by Londis
Summary: Ava Barnes, an quiet and reserved auror at the Ministry doesn't know just how much her life will change as Dumbledore asks her to join the Order of the Phoenix. Voldemort is back but not many seem to believe Harry Potter and Dumbledore's words. What Ava didn't expect on was falling in love with Sirius Black.
1. An Surprising Visit

A harsh summer wind swept through the East London street in the pitch-dark night. Taking with it the unwanted plastic wrapping papers that had been thoughtlessly thrown away to the street, along with the last filter part of the cigarettes that had been inhaled and then chuffed on to the street.

It had been an unusual cold start to the summer (and that's saying something with the British standard) with most of the days the gray clouds covering the sky into the middle of June.

The wind found its way to one of the brick buildings window; hitting the glass like needles and bouncing off to the ground. Inside a twenty five year old woman by the name of Ava Barnes with hazel brown curls, freckled face and deep blue eyes sat on the teal couch in the safety of her living room. Taking a sip of the now luke warm tea as she read a book. On her lap lay a tabby cat peacefully purring when Ava occasionally put down the book to pet the cat. The room was impeccable neat, from the crowded alphabetical ordered bookshelf to the shiny wooden floor and the folded blankets on the couch and also contained a small wardrobe as it was the entrance to the house as well.

Divulged in writings of the pages, Ava did not seem to notice the banging on her door ( or perhaps it was drowned by the harsh sound of the wind ). As the echoes of the knocks became more and more intense, she began to steer her gaze to the door. Her heart leaped a bit in panic, she didn't usually get visitors and it was very curious indeed why someone would be knocking at her door at this time. Putting aside the book and the cup on the sofa table and grabbing her wand, the fast movement making the cat screech jump out from her lap.

"Sorry Darcy." she murmured, her eyes now completely focused on the door.

Another knock echoed through the room. When she opened the door, she was taken even further aback. A thin elder man with a couple of feet long white shimmering hair and competing beard greeted Ava with an inviting smile. The light blue eyes covered by a pair of half-moon spectacles that rested on the crooked nose and clad in a purple velvet robe. It was no other than Ava's old headmaster at Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardy, Dumbledore. She had seen her briefly at the ministry after graduating some years ago but they hadn't exchanged much more than "hello".

"Dumbledore." she said surprised.

"I do hope I'm not intruding."'

"Not at all, come in." she said as they shook hands.

"Thank you Ava."

"Do you want anything to drink, or snack?" she asked.

"Ah no, thank you." Dumbledore declined as he sat down on the couch.

"Now, I'm sure you're very curious to what I may be doing here." he said, reading her still surprised expression

"A bit yeah." said Ava, taking a seat next to him.

"Well, I won't be very long. It dawned upon me I never have fully congratulated you for passing your auror test."

"Thank you." said Ava, now even more taken a back. It's been years since she passed the test now. Surely that couldn't be why Dumbledore was here? Her question would soon be answered.

"And I reckon you heard the rumours about Lord Voldemort?" He said in a serious manner eyeing her closely. Ava flinched a bit at the mention of the name. Her eyes grew bigger and her mouth opened a bit as she seemed to drift of in thoughts.

"Is it true? He's really back?" she whispered. Ever since Cedric Diggory's death rumours had been going all over that Voldemort was back, as Harry Potter had come back with his body from the Triwizard Tornament and recalled how Voldemort had killed him. The ministry however had dismissed this as lies. Ava however, believed Dumbledore's and Harry Potter's words but to hear it out loud made it so much more real. At this Dumbledore gave a slow nod.

"He is, which brings me to why I'm here." At this point, Ava breaths were all going slower and heavier.

"I started this group called The Order of the Phoenix all with the aim to stop Voldemort. And I think you would be a very liable and trustworthy person in this group with your position at the ministry and your skills. Because no doubt Voldemort will eventually try to have fully control of it."

The words seemed to float in the air for a while. It wasn't because of doubt, because catching dark wizards was something that lit an fire Ava but it was the realization of the reality.

She hadn't been very old when Voldemort had been brought to power before but old enough to remember the panic, the fright and the terror that had been. Her father had been killed by one of Voldemort's Death Eater, and she wanted nothing more but to avenge the man who murdered him. She didn't know much about his murder - it wasn't something her mother liked to talk about. All Ava knew was that her dad worked at the Department of Mysteries as an Unspeakable and one day he hadn't come back from work.

She remembered the details so vividly; her mother pacing back and forth in the living room getting more frantic by the hour. Ava had put her younger sister Cassie to bed, when she heard someone knocking on the door. By the loud footsteps she knew it was a man, and she heard her mother whimper loudly from the ground floor. As she walked down to the ground floor, she found her mom in tears by the kitchen table. The man seemed to have disappeared. Ava had never seen a person so destroyed. She held her mum tightly, and she would never forget her mum's broken voice whimper 'D-dad won't be back home'. After that her mum had never been the same. She didn't like discussing his murder, and had taken years afterwards until she revealed they had found his body in the department, being put through the cruciatus curse before eventually being killed. Nobody knew who had done it.

"You can think about it." he said calmly.

"I have, and I want to join."

"I want to stress to you that there may come times when you're put in great danger and you'll be a threat to Voldemort and the Death Eaters because of this' His eyes now seemed x-ray her face with is blue eyes."

"I don't care, if You-Know-Who is growing stronger I want to fight." At this Dumbledore smiled at her.

"Well then, welcome to the Order." He got up from the couch.

"The headquarters is at 12 Grimmauld Place, London and I'm the Secret Keeper. There is a meeting tomorrow at 5 pm and we very much appreciate if you can make it." Ava nodded. "I can."

As Dumbledore walked to the door he turned around "See you tomorrow then Ava."

And as her old headmaster disappeard from her sights, leaving Ava alone to sit on the couch an sulk it all in. The rain still shooting down on the glass window, and the street below as empty and deserted as before, but everything had changed.


	2. 12 Grimmauld Place

_12 Grimmauld Place, London. 12 Grimmuald Place, London._ Ava thought to herself.

She opened her eyes - no longer was standing in her flat. She looked around the street and saw the familiar skyline in the distance and the red buses traveling in slow speed on the other side of the road. In front of her was a row of traditional brick town houses.

In a matter of seconds, seemingly out of nowhere; between number 11 and 13 suddenly a narrow brick house with a worn set of front steps appeard. Ava knew without a doubt that this must be it.

From the outside it looked manky and old, judging from the dust that had been collected and the dirty window glasses it didn't look like anyone had lived there for years. The large wooden door had a handle in the shape of a silver serpent, which Ava pushed several times. Something about all this made her very uncomfortable, and she started to doubt it really had been Dumbledore in her flat last night.

The door opened, and a man with light brown hair stood by the door spring, he must be quite young but the bags under his eyes and flecked grey hair strands made him look older. He gave her a friendly smile.

"You must be Ava Barnes."

"Yes."

"I'm Remus." he said as the shook hands

"We're still waiting for some people, follow me." he said and she nodded as she stepped inside.

The hall was dark and narrow, in the high ceiling a large silver chandelier dangled from. The house probably had been great in its time but the house elves heads on the wall by the staircase and the troll feet umberella stand to the right of the door made Ava even more uncomfortable than before. It looked more like a dark wizard house rather than a headquarters for a group against Voldemort. Ava followed Remus through the corridor and down a staircase.

"Where are we?" she asked

"It's the family Black's old house. They were quite dark wizards which is why it doesn't look so...homely here, but it has great security which is why we're using it." he answered apologetic.

She followed Remus through the corridor into the kitchen. The room was very large, with brick walls and on the other side was a magnificent fireplace. Pots and pans dangled from the ceiling. There was an great oak table to the side where she saw some people where sitting who were now eyeing her closely. Ava felt the an urge to run outside as she felt herself being watched.

First, a plump woman with tomato red fiery hair walked up to Ava, introducing herself as Molly. She was followed by a thin man called Arthur with red hair and a tall man with long red hair pulled in a pony tail and a dragon tooth as a an earing who couldn't be any other than their son, introducing himself as Bill.

Then to Ava's relief, two people she did recognise stepped forward. A tall bald black man who wore a single hoop earring; Kinglsey Shacklebolt who was her mentor in the auror office. As well as a young auror named Tonks with heart shaped face and bubblegum pink hair who Ava was friendly with at the office. Both greeting her with hugs.

"I knew you say yes! Kinglsey and I suggested to Dumbledore we should recruit you." said Tonks happily, and Ava gave the two a big smile. It made more sense now about why she had been asked by Dumbledore to join.

Then Ava's eyes settled for the last person in the room, whom was casually walking up to her. She had never been more confused. He was a lot more handsome than in the photographs she seen but there was no doubting it was him. Long black hair and a gaunt pale face with high cheekbones and grey eyes that seemed almost fathomless. Ava hands clutch tighter to the wand in her coat pocket in a reflex move and moved steadily towards him. Close enough, she pulled the wand up by his neck, and locked his arms behind his back.

"Sirius Black." she said, still startled by the man's appearance, and more so by the fact that that a large grin had appeard on his face, and the fact he didn't put up any resistance.

"He's on our side Ava." said Kingsley in his deep voice, placing his a hand on her shoulder. It was a very odd situation considering Kingsley spent most of these days at the office now being fixated with catching Black. Of course, it dawned upon her now that it was probably a way of protecting him. She put down her wand and released her grip around his hands.

"But aren't you-?" She said looking at Sirius.

"An evil mass murder on the escape?" he finished with a grin.

"Yeah…something like that." Ava said, more relaxed by his humor.

"They got that all wrong, sorry to disappoint."

"How - I mean all that was left of Pettigrew was his finger?" She asked, not out of doubt, but more curiosity. Sirius seemed to have sensed the tone in her voice.

'Pettigrew was the Death Eater working for Voldemort who revealed the Potter's adress to him. When I found out he did I went after him, only he cut out his finger and transformed into his animagus a rat'

Ava stood shocked at this revelation, her eyes becoming bigger. It meant Sirius Black had been imprisoned at Azkaban for 12 years for a murder he didn't commit, and everyone still thought he was responsible for. It was Ava's biggest fear as an auror; that she get the wrong wizard or witch and they'ld be imprisoned for something they hadn't done.

"I'm really sorry about that before, I had no idea."

"That's nothing. Mad Eye Moody stunned me before anyone had the time to explain."

But before she had time to add anything else to the conversation, more people walked into the room. Some where old teachers at Hogwarts; McGonagall and Snape, there was another familiar face from the office, Mad-Eye Moody who also stepped in. As well as ( and Ava was very surprised to see him ) - Mundungs Fletcher, an up too no good dodgy type whom she had came across several times. They eventually all sat down at the big table. Ava had taken a seat between Remus and Kingsley. At last Dumbledore came in; he had a scarlet robe and as he entered he had the effect of everyones eyes falling on him as he sat down at the chair in the middle of the table.

"Thank you all for coming, please do excuse my tardiness. Firstly, as you noticed we have a new member - Ava Barnes." Said Dumbledore and everyone turned to look at her, making Ava feel her cheeks burn a bit. Luckily, Dumbledore swiftly continued.

"Now, there's something very important I like to discuss." Dumbledore said. At this everyone leaned forward in surprise. "I believe that Voldemort wants something at the Ministry, in the Department of Mysteries." he continued. Most people had seemed to leaned forward at this. There was an air of silence in the room.

"There is something I believe he wants there, very much. Something that we need to guard." said Dumbledore.

"What is it?" asked Arthur. Dumbledore looked at him intensely before looking a round the table.

"A prophecy made between Voldemort and Harry Potter."

"What does it say?" asked Sirius in a concerned voice.

"That - I can't unfortunately say."

"But why does Voldemort want it?" asked Kingsley.

"Because the Dark Lord has never heard the full prophecy and he thinks by doing so he'll find a way to kill Harry." Snape answered.

"Does it?" asked Sirius, directing his question towards Dumbledore Ava noticed.

"Yes and no. That's unfortunately all I can reveal." said Dumbledore "and what I suppose we do is guard the prophecy so that everyone takes shift."

After the meeting had ended and the schedule for the shifts had been made Molly announced that dinner would be severed. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape and all excused themselves and walked from the table. As Ava got up to leave, hesitant in whether the offer had extended to her and not wanting to push the hospitality.

"Oh, don't be silly Ava. Stay for dinner, it's an order." said Molly reading Ava's body language.

"Oh thanks." Ava said and awkwardly sat down again.

Three boys entered ( two of them twins with tomato red hair and grins on their face ) the other one was a bit younger but tall and lanky with the same vibrant red hair, as well as two girls; one with equally red hair and one with bushy brown hair entered the two girls. The girls had walked up to Tonks and started a conversation with her. Kingsley was now in a deep discussion with Bill regarding some investments at Gringotts as the plate with mash and steak appeard. Not having anyone to talk to Ava suddenly became very self conscious and spent a great deal of effort in trying to finish of the vegetables on the plate. She was however saved by Remus, who noticed her behaviour and they got into a conversation regarding their works. Remus had apparently worked at Hogwarts twos years ago as Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and Ava had been very keen to listen to his approach to the subject.

"You know, you're not at all what I imagined Ava." said Sirius suddenly, who had been seated in front of Remus.

"You heard of me?" she asked surprised, her eyebrows raised.

"Oh trust me, the last years of Azkaban the rumours of the auror. Barnes has been buzzing, from what I heard I expected you too be a big bloke."

"Oh"

"Oh, Ava may be small but you don't want to get in the way of her stunning spells" said Kingsley with a smile.

"So, time for dessert?" asked Molly

Author's Note:

Thanks everyone for favouriting, following and reviewing! It really means a lot. I think that next chapter should be up in the middle/end of next week. :) Anywaaay just need to say I'm really happy because summer has finally arrived here! Finally I don't need a jacket =)

RPG_Girl - Thanks for pointing that out. Turns out it hadn't saved it when I put the pairing down so I'm really glad you pointed it out! Really happy you enjoyed the story!

Texaskid - Ahh, thank you so much for the advice and for pointing out the name thing! I did try to fix as much as I could see. And thanks again, I'm glad you found it interesting. Ava is 25, its stated briefly in the first chapter =)

Erinthewanderer- Thank you so much! Your comment made me so happy


	3. Midnight

Apart from work Ava's work, excitement had been pretty non-existent in her life. Her daily routines usually consisted of long walks around the green London parks, disappearing into the world of books and visiting her sister and mum. However, Ever since she had joined the Order o f Phoenix it was suddenly filled with helping out With the Order's different missions and going to meetings at Grimmauld Place with loud and filling dinners afterwards. She couldn't ever remember being so occupied with anything so much except for work and school. It was nice for a change - not having to drown herself with things to do to occupy her time.

The day had come for the first shift of guarding the prophecy, she clutched her fingers to the cashmere fabric of her sweater. She had been assigned the shift with Remus. After a few meetings with the Order, she had become very found of him and it was often him she went to for a chat during their breaks. He had an easy going and calm nature and they had gotten along very well.

'Ready?' asked Remus, taking Ava back from her thoughts to reality; she nodded her head as they stood facing the black large door. As Remus opened the door, a circular room with a marble floor with candles emitting a cool blue light from the ceiling, and twelve handleless doors had appeared in front of them. Ava had to admit her heart sunk a bit as she faced the doors and her head started to feel light weighted. She had thought, maybe both in dread and hope that coming to this place might give her more of an idea exactly how and why her father had been killed. Which she now realised just how foolish that had been. Because it was the Ministry of Magic after all, and what went on here was highly secrete and guarded. Distracted in her thoughts, Ava didn't notice that Remus had uttered a spell and that one of the doors was now giving out a golden shine as he nodded to her to follow.

Their steps echoed around the room as they stepped forward. The vast room had the samefloor and black walls. It was filled with hundreds of shelves that had small orbs stacked up. They started to walk up in silence, all that could be heard was their shoes hitting the floor as Ava was gazing until Remus stopped abruptly at row 97.

'Here it is.' he said. Distracted by her own thoughts. She looked up and noticed Remus pointing at a prophecy labeled

 _ **S.P.T to A.P.W.B.D**_

 _ **Dark Lord**_

 _ **and (?) Harry Potter**_

'I really wonder what it says' said Ava quiet. Remus nodded his head.

They knelt down on the floor. Leaning against the shelf they made themselves comfortable and talked for some hours. They decided to do it in shift as the night grew closer, Ava having the first shift and Remus the second one.

As Remus drifted into sleep Ava sat up watching her surroundings. So this is where her dad had worked, or who knows maybe he never actually had stepped inside this room. He had never talked about his work, and she had never asked because she knew he wasn't allowed to discuss but she did remember how worn out and tired he had seemed at the end.

She sat up the rest of her shift reading a muggle book. As her shift ended she woke up Remus carefully. He looked at her with tired eyes.

'Sorry to wake you' she said and he shook his head.

'Don't be, it's your turn to rest.' He said reassuring. 'Oh, do you want to come by for dinner tomorrow night?'

'Yes sure.' Ava said, a bit taken aback.

It didn't take long after until that Ava's eyes had closed and she drifted into sleep.

-x-

The summer seemed to finally set in the English capital and there was an heat wave coming soon being announced on all radios. Ava wore a white wrap dress as she stepped in the now familiar hallway of Grimmauld Place. Sirius had opened the door and was now standing leaned against the staircase, wearing a navy t-shirt and black trousers.

'How was Harry?' He asked as soon as her feet passed the door step. It had been Ava's shift earlier that day to watch Harry together with Kingsley. She noticed that Sirius eyes seemed to lit up by the mention of Harry's name.

Harry hadn't really done much, he either seemed to spend time taking walks around the neighbourhood or spent locked in his bedroom. Ava had however, starting despising the family he lived with. She overheard them several times shouting at him for no good reason like watching the news but let own their son; a large boy; whom seemed up to no good most of the time, she had seen him drinking heavily and watched him scare small children away.

Ava had really taken a liking to Harry, there was something very heart wrenching and familiar seeing him so alienated and lonely.

"I don't think he's having the easiest time at his uncle and aunt, they don't seem like very nice people but…he is alive and healthy. He's your godson right?' She said. At first Sirius looked at her and seemed to drift of into thoughts at first.

'Yes, he's told me they aren't very nice. I know what that is like.' said Sirius in a short breath. Ava gave him a quizzible look back.

'They were obsessed with being pureblood, as you can tell from this house.'

'You grow up here?' She asked surprised before remembering that Remus had said this was the Black House in passing. Trying to picture steps of children's shoes clanking on wooden floor just seemed very out of place.

'Yes, until I was 16 and ran away.'

'Where did you go?'

'I went to live with Harry's dad, James family. Then I inherited money from an uncle and got my own house.'

'It must be really awful to be back here.'

'Nearly beats Azkaban.' He said and Ava felt an urge to hug him or touch his shoulder but contained herself from doing so

'Oh well, we should probably get to Remus in the kitchen' said Sirius and they followed the hallway to the kitchen where Remus was busy waving his wand to make the spoon stir around in the pot as the smell of mulled wine and onion.

He turned around to greet Ava.

'Ah lovely too see you Ava.'

'Smells great.' Ava commented.

'It's a good thing Remus can cook, otherwise I probably live on bread.' said Sirius, clapping his hand against Remus shoulder.

The beef stew that Remus has made was really good. As the night went on, and more glasses of wine had been drunk. The buzzing effect of the alcohol had made its effect and Ava felt her muscles becoming more relaxed and her head more light. She wasn't a big drinker so it didn't take much to get her a bit tipsy. Remus and Sirius had started to talk about their time at Hogwarts. They had together with James Potter and Peter Pettigrew done a lot of up to no good deeds during their time at Hogwarts and both their eyes sparkled and their voices spoke in a cherished tone about their memories. She felt a sting of jealousy of their close bond and how much they had enjoyed their time at Hogwarts.

It was midnight when they had finished a story about how they managed to switch Snape's shampoo to a pink dye in their second year and it had taken 4 days until he had been able to completely get rid of the pink colour that Remus got up from his chair.

'Well, I need to get to sleep now. Have an early start tomorrow.'

'All right, good night.' said Sirius.

'Night.' said Ava as Remus left the kitchen who started to feel a bit nervous not knowing if Sirius wanted her to leave. It was one of those social situations where she just felt totally useless as a human being because she had no idea how to act. She was planning to leave when Sirius poured some more wine into their glasses.

She took a sip of the red wine.

'I'm truly sorry what happened to you, how the system failed you and it can't be easy being stuck here.'

He looked her straight into her eyes, and he gave her a smile.

'It's not your fault.'

'I am part of that system though and it failed you. You much have so much anger'

Ava almost expected Sirius to lie, that he say it was all right because he seemed so guarded but instead he took another sip.

'I am. Not as much as I am at Voldemort and Peter for killing the people I love but yeah. And don't get me wrong I am happy to be out of Azkaban, to be out of …but even when this is all over my name will never be cleared'

'That's the problem with the system. Innocent until proven guilty but as soon as you are accused that label will never fade' He nodded.

"We've been talking an awfully lot about we did at Hogwarts. What did you do?"asked Sirius. His grey eyes gazing at her.

"Oh, I don't have any of those stories from Hogwarts. It was pretty awful years for me, I never really fitted in… I do however, have some pretty good Auror stories"

And that's how it started really. Ava would come over, especially during the nights when Remus would be away on his missions and she knew that Sirius would be alone in that house and she would talk about her day and different Auror stories she had. She saw Sirius getting deep indulged with them, like he was living through them.

-x-

I'm SOOOO sorry for taking forever to update! It's just got hectic during summer and then again when uni started again. To be honest, I have no idea when the next update will be because my exams are in May but I may retort to going back to write when studying during breaks.


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